Effective Church Communications

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and a Biblical Perspective to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. Our tools constantly change; our task doesn’t; we can help.
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Give your Operation Christmas Child an opportunity to give and expand the joy

11 October, 2011 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Anyone can give and everyone should have the opportunity to give, as the Apostle Paul reminded us:

And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,  they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people.  And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. 2 Cor. 8:1-5

When most of us are working on our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, we primarily think about what we are going to give the one child. But you can not only do that, but by the addition of a few items you can also give your child the opportunity to give. This isn't hard or expensive to do.

Here's how:

You can do this by buying and putting into your Christmas child package items that are packaged together and can be broken up and shared. When you do this, you give your Christmas child the opportunity not only to receive, but to share and give to others.

The 99cent and Dollar Stores have packages of these and many other that would be great to put into your shoebox. Many of the items below don't hardly take up any more room--for example, a package of combs or a couple of toothbrushes instead of just one, take up very little additional room.

Here are some ideas of items you can buy to give your Christmas Child a chance to give:

  • Buy a package of colorful combs in various sizes and colors
  • Buy a package of toothbrushes
  • Buy pencils in a package
  • Buy hair ornaments of all kinds in a package
  • Buy several packages of gum
  • Buy soap bundled together

You can copy any of this information and expand this idea to put into a bulletin insert, email or newsletter to pass on the idea to your congregation.

As always, pray for wisdom and that the Lord will lead you to wonderful things. Pray for your Christmas child that he or she would know the joy of sharing and giving in addition to receiving this holiday season.

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If you would like more information about the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child, CLICK HERE.

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Filed Under: Christmas Tagged With: Christmas child ideas, Operation Christmas Child project, teaching children to give

Editable Halloween MS Publisher materials, a FREE preview PDF for all, editable files for members

5 October, 2011 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Cover of Overview of the Editable MS Publisher Files
Click here to download the PDF. It is an overview of the editable MS Publisher files and how to use them for effective Halloween Outreach.

The publications illustrated here cover every aspect of preparation for, what to use during and follow up for effective Halloween outreach including:

***Motivational bulletin insert
***Invitation Cards
***Case-study, volunteer recruitment brochure
***Sign-in cards
***Cards to give out as people leave your event

Click on the PDF for a free overview of all the communications with ideas on how to use them.

Effective Church Communication members can click on the links below to download the two ZIP files that contains editable MS Publisher files for all the publications illustrated. The first file has all the PR, invitation, outreach, sign up and follow up cards. The second file has the brochure. If you are not a member, this is a great time to join and have access to all these files. CLICK HERE to go to the MEMBERSHIP area.

Just download and save the ZIP file on your computer, click to open it and then you can open and edit any MS Publisher file there. You must have a copy of MS Publisher on your computer for this to work.

[mepr-show if="rule: 23971"]

 

Click here to download the ZIP file

Click here to download the Brochure for Trunk or Treat File

[/mepr-show]

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Filed Under: Fall Festival and Halloween, Misc. Advice and Articles

Out with the old. In with the new–tips for a productive church office, part two

24 December, 2010 By grhilligoss@gmail.com Leave a Comment

Gayle Hilligoss Picture
Article by Gayle Hilligoss

The start of a new year is an appropriate time to evaluate performance, to identify personal practices hindering professionalism, and to replace old habits with new and better ways to work. As Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote, “Now is the day, and now is the hour.” Here are three more good habits to acquire in 2011. (to see the first three, click here)

• Excellence

Excellence is not perfection. Anything worth doing at all is worth doing well. Realistically, few things are worth a shot at perfection. The wisdom of spending an hour looking for the “perfect” clipart or typeface for a bulletin insert is questionable. Very likely your responsibilities demand more productive uses of your time. While aiming for perfection is impractical, never settle for mediocre. Excellence is rewarding and attainable.

• Organization

Physical clutter slows everyone down. Time and effort are wasted locating what is needed. Tempers may flare. Mental disorganization perpetuates a cycle of working hard while accomplishing little. Planning where things should be kept, how jobs should be accomplished—timeline, methods, and available resources—encourages effectiveness, efficiency, and smiles.

• Decisiveness

The inability or unwillingness to make a decision about what to do or how to do it absolutely hinders productivity. Often any decision is better than no decision. Fretting over possibilities is a decision in itself, one that creates a backlog of work and frustrates coworkers.

Start the decision-making process by identifying precisely what you want to achieve. Gather and evaluate relevant information. Finally, choose your course of action. Taking days to consider options may reveal a perfectly clear choice, but very likely it will not. When stalled, ask yourself what you will know in a day or two that you don't know now. If the answer is “not much,” trust your instinct, make your decision, and act.

-----------------------
To read the first part of this list, click here.

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Filed Under: Columnist Gayle Hilligoss, Contributors, New Years

Christmas Letter and Handout that includes an explanation of why Jesus is the Reason for the Season and gives an invitation to respond to Him

11 December, 2010 By Yvon Prehn 1 Comment

Click on the image to download the PDF with this Christmas letter as well as the back side of faith exploration resources. Editable files and more options are available for ECC Members on a link at the end of this article.

At Christmas we work really hard to get people to attend the events we put on, but just getting people to attend an event matters little if we do not introduce them to the reason for Christmas—Jesus.

In addition to events, we often send out personal, church and ministry Christmas letters, but again, if we don’t share with people the real joy of Christmas—Jesus and the salvation He gives us—our Christmas message is incomplete.

This Christmas publication here will help solve both of those challenges. It uses the favorite hymn, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” as an introduction to why Jesus came at Christmas and invites people to respond to him.

The piece to your right is a free PDF of the piece along with the page described below as a second page of the PDF. Additional options are available for Effective Church Communication Members and are shown later in this article.

An additional resources for faith exploration

Many people today, know little about the background of Christmas or little about Jesus. Because of that you may want to print on the back of the handout the list that gives websites where people can explore the Christian faith in depth.

Becoming a Christian is not a decision not to be taken lightly and  this sheet encourages careful exploration of the facts before a decision is made.

Suggestions for use:

This piece can be:

  • Given out during or following any Christmas service
  • Posted on your website for your people to use any way they want
  • Given out on a CD following a service.
  • Printed up and passed out to your people to include in Christmas letters.
  • Copied and sent out on email letters.
  • Any other way you can think of to share the gospel joy this Christmas season!

For Effective Church Communication Members, below is a MEMBERS ONLY ZIP file download that includes:

  • 2 more designs of the publication, illustrated below
  • A PDF booklet of all of them
  • Separated files for printing on a spot color digital duplicator
  • Editable MS Publisher files for all
  • MS Word files for the basic text files of the letter and the resource list
  • PGN images of all the letter and the resource list
Three options for Christmas letter
All of these PDF options, plus MS Publisher editable of each, MS Word text files and images are available for ECC Members.

CLICK HERE  to download the ZIP FILE. Remember to "SAVE IT" to your desktop and then click to open to access the individual files.

 

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Filed Under: Christmas Tagged With: Christmas communication, Christmas gospel presentation, Christmas outreach, church and Christmas, Gospel letter, gospel track, Hark the Herald Angels, yvon prehn

A solution to Christmas burnout & an inspiring communication example: the Advent Conspiracy

10 December, 2010 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

I wish I would have discovered this group sooner--I would have done much more to promote their message, but that said, having just found out about it, I could not wait to share it with all of you. It is a wonderful reminder of the real meaning of Christmas, it presents solutions AND it does them in a very upbeat, entertaining way.

Though their message is powerful, the please take time to view this little video for a unique way to share a convicting message. An article that explains the program follows. For much more information, downloadable resources and more please go to: http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

note: an ECC reader just sent this link, which is a great companion to the one above: http://www.rethinkingchristmas.com/

Presents or Presence? Gifts that Matter

By Susan Passi-Klaus, from the United Methodist News Service

What if we just stop? Stop the madness. Stop the frustrating pursuit of the perfect present. Stop shopping until we drop. Stop trying to “people please” through gift giving.

What if we spend less, but give more, love more? And here’s a thought. What if we use the holidays to worship God more fully?

Those are questions posed by a grassroots group known as the Advent Conspiracy, http://www.adventconspiracy.org/.  They’ve partnered with more than 1,000 churches—more than 300 of them United Methodist—in 17 countries to change the way the world does Christmas and the way the world gives presents or . . . presence.

“We’re not trying to kill the idea of giving gifts,” said Ken Weigel, pastor of ministry development at Imago Dei Community in Portland, Ore. The nondenominational congregation is one of the founding churches of the Advent Conspiracy. “What we’re saying is that instead of buying your kid the Xbox, buy him a baseball mitt, and yourself a mitt, and actually make a commitment to your son to play catch regularly.”

Or, suggested Weigel, give a friend or family member a couple of mugs and a pound of coffee with a note that says, “This coffee is for when we sit down and talk because what I want to do this year is spend more time with you.”

Called “relational giving,” it’s an important tenet of Advent Conspiracy’s philosophy.

“We’ve got to re-examine this weird idea of saying ‘I love you equals X amount of money,’” he said. “What everyone really wants is to be loved and to have time with the people they love. Nobody lies on their deathbed and says, ‘I wish I had more toys.’”

In fact, Weigel believes it’s a relief to most people when they finally let go of their grandiose expectations of both giving and receiving over the holidays.

“Just look at Black Friday. We spent the entire day before giving thanks, and then the next day we go crazy going after things we’ve convinced ourselves we need. What if we just stopped the consumerism? What if we just said we actually have the things we really need—we don’t need another sweater or another set of screwdrivers. What if we just looked the empire of consumerism dead in the eye and said, ‘I don’t need you!’”

According to Weigel, moms often have the hardest time reining in the spending because their love language is gift giving. And dads? Well, they too often try to solve Christmas giving dilemmas with a credit card. However, parents can lead by example and model giving to kids.

“Say the family has an extra $200 they had planned to spend on a Wii, but the neighbors don’t have heat, or the homeless don’t have food, or a family at church doesn’t have Christmas gifts. Do we want to give the neighbors heat, or the homeless a few meals, or the family who is down on their luck some stuff they need . . . or do we go buy the Wii?

“Somewhere along the way, kids have got to get the message, ‘Let’s stop worshipping the idol of consumerism and actually start looking at Jesus and the gift God gave us in giving him.”

It’s about the meaning behind the giving.

This is the first year the Rev. Kevin Raidy’s congregation has collaborated with Advent Conspiracy. At Bloomfield United Methodist Church in Indiana where he serves as pastor, a large outside banner announces, “We support a conspiracy!”

“This is an awareness project for us,” Raidy said. “Meaning is lost at Christmas. Jesus was born in the simplest of settings; yet, we’ve lost the message.”

In a series of sermons and other lessons inspired by Advent Conspiracy, Raidy is driving home the message that it is not always about the gifts; it is about the meaning behind the giving.

“The Christmas ‘kick’ is starting earlier and earlier every year,” the pastor said. “There are pre-Black Friday sales, then Black Friday, then Cyber-Monday. Everyone is wanting bits and pieces of our money and our time. We can be stressed out from overdoing. We can be maxed out on our credit cards from overspending. Or we can have God’s peace that comes from giving from the heart. It’s a choice we make.”

Give more of yourself so there is more for others.

In his first Advent Conspiracy sermon of the season, the Rev. Brian Germano encouraged his congregation to spend less on gifts of excess—the filler and fluff gifts they didn’t really need—so that they could contribute to causes that make a tangible difference in the world.

On a recent Sunday at East Cobb United Methodist Church in Marietta, Ga., Germano asked his parishioners to “give more of yourselves.”

“God didn’t give us things,” Germano preached. “He gave us himself so we should give gifts that do the same—give of ourselves and give gifts that celebrate a relationship.”

“Buy one less gift,” he suggested. “And the money you save on that one less gift can then be used for gifts that matter like helping a needy family, or filling a care package for someone, or helping with a mission project.”

According to Germano, the apostle Paul talks about the use of money and possessions where our abundance can be shared with others in need so there is a balance.

“So spending less,” said the pastor, “helps us fulfill Paul’s advice to use our wealth in ways that truly make a difference in the world.”

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Filed Under: Christmas Tagged With: advent conspiracy, Christmas, christmas communications

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